Mac OS X 10.4 — the much - foretell update to Apple ’s operating system — hits retail shelves Friday at 6 p.m. local time . But the company has already commence talk up the massive operating system X update sleep with as Tiger .
While many of OS X 10.4 ’s marquee feature — include Spotlight , Automator , and an update version of Safari — have been publicly known for almost a twelvemonth , Apple executives say there is a caboodle in the operating system that will make Mac drug user ’ lives easier . And they summate that you ’ve been hearing a lot about Tiger ’s Spotlight lookup technology for a safe grounds .
“ We think that people using Mac OS cristal Tiger will be in the Spotlight carte all the time , ” Brian Croll , Apple ’s senior music director of Software Product Marketing , told MacCentral . “ you could go there to find documents , impression , software or anything else you want . All roadstead conduct to Spotlight . ”
Spotlight and its power to make and mechanically update Smart Folders in the Finder will assist drug user find and organize files on their hard drives . This has become more of a job in late twelvemonth because “ backbreaking thrust are so prominent we never throw anything by , ” aver Chris Bourdon , Apple ’s product manager for Mac OS X.
Besides Spotlight , Tiger features other new cock , aimed at helping Mac user in their everyday lives , including Automator . While the built - in automation service program has been link up to AppleScript and has sometimes been referred to as visual AppleScript , Bourdon said that is not the right way to take care at matter since AppleScript is only one patch of the Automator puzzle .
“ AppleScript has been an exceedingly nifty applied science for the great unwashed that wanted to automate things on the Mac — it ’s great for people that want to plunk in there and learn some scripting , ” Bourdon said . “ There are a ton of mass that have it away what they want to do with their computer and how they want their applications to work together , but they do n’t love scripting . We ’ve broadened the marketplace of people who can take vantage of mechanisation in the operating system without having to write any code . ”
Other major plus and enhancements in OS X 10.4 include :
• an update to Safari that adds RSS - friendly capabilities to Apple ’s Web web browser app ;
• Dashboard , a new bed of the OS for housing miniskirt - applications called thingumabob ;
• a raw edition of iChat AV that adds multi - person video and audio chats ;
• the updated QuickTime 7 , boast the unexampled H.264 TV codec ;
• build - in .Mac syncing ;
• enhancement to the build - in Mail app ; and
• under - the - goon changes to OS X ’s Unix underpinnings .
“ Tiger is an unbelievably cryptical operating system , ” say Croll . “ This by far the richest release we ’ve done . ”
Mac OS Adam Tiger will be available on Friday , April 29 , 2005 for $ 129 . Panthera tigris need a minimum of 256 MB of memory and 3 GB of usable distance on your hard driving force ( 4 GB , if you install Tiger ’s XCode 2 developer prick ) . The update is designed to melt down on any Macintosh computer with a PowerPC G5 , G4 or G3 central processor and build - in FireWire .
